Inground pool: Can i skip a season without opening?

jpark2317May 31, 2011

Hi all,

Rookie pool owner with an inground pool in NYC area (~20k gal. viynl) with a few questions regarding skipping a year of opening pool. Last year, we opened the pool with the help of vendor, who closed it.

As both my wife and I wont be home much during summer (due to work related travel) i want to skip a season of opening my pool, and was interested if people can help me with 3 questions:

1) Will this be okay? I called the vendor who took care of my pool last year and they said its not a good idea (they may just want to be paid). Just wanted some thoughts as I hate to turn over money for a unused pool.

2) As I won't be vacumming if I don't open the pool, do I need to shock it a few (say once a month) over the summer?

3) I peeked into the cover an my water level is pretty high. As I dont have the setup to do a backwash and drain it, would someone recommend how i should go about (or do i even have to) drain the pool down a bit. I was thinking of going to home depot to buy a standard water pump, would this help?